Another Guilty Pleasure, Shot Down

Damn.

I was really hoping the whole “Sopranos” final episode-thing would actually reunite Steve Perry with Journey.

Damn. Seriously.

I love their particular brand of 80’s rock-cheese; to me, it’s more than just kitch. I actually enjoy their music. And, yes, I played their arcade game in the ’80’s.

I originally put “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Only The Young”, “Be Good To Yourself”, “Separate Ways”, and “Wheel In The Sky” on my XBOX hard drive just so I could listen to them when playing “GTA: Vice City” (There’s no Journey on the original soundtrack?! An abomination, I tell you!). But recently put their whole greatest hits on it, just so I could hear the other songs while playing. I skipped “Open Arms”, though. Too wimpy.

I have all sorts of music in my CD collection, from Goth and Industrial to Big Band to Country to Soundtrack Orchestrations to Spike friggin’ Jones. But Journey… they hold a special, cheesy place in that collection.

Damn.

Disconnected

Would you think strangely of me if I revealed to you…

that I have no cable? No satellite system?

Even stranger than that, my wife and I don’t even have a UHF-capable TV. No rabbit ears. Nothing like that at all. Unless it’s on video or DVD, we don’t watch TV.

Go ahead and gape at me like I’m a wild-man in a freak-show. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

…

Done? OK.

At first, it was out of necessity: when the in-laws (her brother and his brood) moved in with us, we had to cut unnecessary corners with our expenses. The first thing to go was our cable; at first, the vacuum it created was palpable. What would my wife do without her reality TV? What would I do without the History Channel (also known as “The Luftwaffe Station”)?

After the initial shock, we kinda settled into not having cable. We read a lot more, played games or conversed more. It was like detoxing from a drug. It wasn’t bad. If we really want to see a TV show, it’ll probably be out on DVD eventually.

Those pesky, ungrateful in-laws moved out in January (and have since found themselves in the same predicament my wife and I were in when they were here… BWAHAHAHAHA!!). Surprisingly, once we found ourselves on more stable financial footing, we didn’t go running out to buy cable again (or satellite, or rabbit ears). Why? My wife still loves her reality shows, I still love to watch the History Channel and Cartoon Network. Why not? Maybe it’s because our life, after spending so long in turmoil (it was like our life was on “pause”), has become so pleasantly quiet now. TV sometimes just seems like so much noise when we watch it at others’ houses now. It’s enjoyable, don’t get me wrong, but it seems that it’s a waste of a lot of time. Although we talk about getting it again, we just don’t need it right now.

Besides, if we want entertainment, there’s always YouTube.

Ridley Scott To Direct “Monopoly: The Movie”

WTF?!

Just When I Think I’m Out, They Pull Me Back In

I held out as long as I could, because I still have 497 old XBox and GameCube games I still haven’t finished.

But due to Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII, Bioshock, and Saboteur, I have to say it:

I’m ready to want a next-generation console.

Ugh, I feel dirty.

I Love It When The Underdog Kicks Ass

Although I’m a music lover who seems to like at least one performer and group from nearly every genre of music, opera always eluded me, never connected with me. Until we saw this guy over the weekend:

(Update: He won, by the way.)

Picture Pages

In case anyone was wondering, this is what we look like…

Crawling back under my rock…

Ugh. What the hell’s that bright, hot, orange thing in the sky?

The “sun”? What is this “sun” you speak of?

Anyway, as of Monday June 18th, I’ll be back to the regular schedule: sleeping till early afternoon, up till sunrise. This schedule change had me all screwed up. My writing projects have been on hold all week, and I can’t wait to start thinking about them again. My “morning” coffee and bagel will be served at about 3:30 PM again, and all will be right with the world.

In the meantime, here’s a trio of Hopi prophesies from the end of Koyaanisqatsi (see, I told you I was too tired to reference that properly).

“If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster.”

“Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky.”

“A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans.”

The wife says anybody can read into these what they want, I say they’re scarily prophetic and self-explanatory (esp. the last one… nuclear bomb, anyone?).

koyanisquaatsi- life out of balance

A temporary schedule change has occurred this week, turning my nights into days. I’m working when I’m usually asleep, and vice versa. This means I’m too tired and lazy and swamped with work to post. You can send me emails: I’ll answer them, but no posts. Not even coffee can help me this week.

(Man, I’m too tired to even check the spelling and correct Hopi definition referenced in the title. I’m usually snoring in bed right about now…)

Into The Future

Well, I finished The Shadow’s “Malmordo”. It was the best of the later Shadow novels I’ve ever read, with some truly surprising twists along the way. I’m still having a hard time with the villain chewing through wood like a rat, but the novel was FULL of rat imagery, so it totally fits.

Why is it every time an inspector or scientist shows up to help the police in those Shadow novels, they always turn out to be the main villain?

Anyway. Moving on, I’ve begun reading the latest issue of the High Adventure pulp reprints. It’s “Captain Future’s Challenge” this time (from the third issue of “Captain Future”, Summer 1940). It may be a bit juvenile in it’s wide-eyed innocence and optimistic futurism, but it’s fun. I can remember my grandfather (the one that built the rocket) and I making paper airplanes in his front yard early one evening when I was a kid. While he was showing me how to add rudders and flaps to make them turn and dive, he was telling me about the old Buster Crabbe “Flash Gordon” serials, how the rockets would swoop in on wires. He got a far-away look in his eyes, and I always wanted to read something from those old-school “space opera” days.

Zoom-zoom!!

Birthday Blah-g

Yesterday (or Monday, if you’re reading this tomorrow… wha?) was my birthday. Yay. My old friends Depression and Self-Doubt were on hand to wish me a big “Happy 33rd”. I’ll spare the details, but for a while I was having some issues, and I forced myself to wear a happy mask for my loved-ones. Inside, I was a wreck, and unable to enjoy anything.

Today, so far, is much better.

I’ve produced one of the best doodles in a long time (I can’t call them drawings or art, because they’re always done at work on scratch paper). It’s a decent visualization of one of the characters I’m working on (The Black Wing), a classic “flying hero” type picture (you know, hero defiantly looking up in the sky while his plane symbolically flies by behind him). It inspired me to come out of my creative funk a little. I’m working on more information about some of my characters, and will have feedback up on the Miami Aerodrome blog as soon as I get it.

In the meantime, some of my birthday gifts are giving me some inspirational boosts as well: “The League Of Exraordinary Gentlemen: Vol. 2″, and “Band Of Brothers”) are terrific entertainment and have got the old wheels squeaking upstairs.

Also, I’ve still got half an ice-cream cake in the freezer, and that’s definitely a good thing (mmm… ice-cream cake… drool…).

PS: Thanks to me giving in to my wife “just trying something”, my once dark-brown hair is now orange. I look like a Skittle